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Sunday, 11 December 2016

To swear or not to swear; that's the f*cking question

Fans of the post-apocalyptic TV thriller 'The Walking Dead' were recently enthralled and
appalled, in equal measure, by the arrival of a powerful new character. A
terrifying cliff-hanger linked the end of series six with the start of series
seven when -having captured our hero Rick Grimes and his colleagues- Negan, the charismatic
leader of the so-called 'Saviours', prepared to exert brutal authority over those
who had dared to challenge his regime. With the captives on their knees awaiting their fate, Negan’s speech was a masterpiece
of choreographed intent, tension-building and gleeful malevolence. Brandishing
‘Lucille’ –a baseball bat covered in barbed wire- the character (brilliantly
played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) explained that he had a strict code to which he
expected everyone to adhere. Informing Rick and company that, while he would
not kill them all (because they would now be working for him), he revealed that there would be at least one punishment killing in order to discourage any
future dissent.

Having filmed different versions of this scene, the producers of the show have now decided
that the newly-released Blu-Ray edition will feature an ‘uncut’ monologue from
Negan, hence restoring the original dialogue from Robert Kirkman’s comic. I
haven’t read the comic, so was unaware that the original speech featured quite
so much swearing. I am not necessarily against bad language and have no problem with well-placed
expletives; in context, even the most foul-mouthed rant can be amusing. But
here’s the thing: when you watch the two versions of that execution scene, one bowdlerised
for a television audience, the other ‘uncut’ and faithful to the comic, you get
two different experiences. The sanitised version is electrifying, tense and heavy
with menace throughout; Negan’s sinister use of
understatement conveys the picture of a man in full control of proceedings. By
contrast, the 'uncut' version, which features 23 variations on the f-word,
threatens to peg him just a notch or two above incoherence. In the
TV version, Negan’s introductory speech includes these lines:

"Hi ... you're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killing my men.
Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed
more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But I think
you're gonna be up to speed shortly."

In the Blu-Ray version, those final four lines are adjusted thus:

"Not cool. Not fucking cool. You have no fucking idea how not fucking cool that shit is. But I think you're gonna be up to
speed shortly."

An even greater contrast occurs when he explains what he is about to do to one of the
captives. In the TV
version, he says:

"You killed my people, a whole damn lot of them … more than I'm comfortable with. And for
that … for that you've gotta pay. So, now... I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta
one of you.”

The Blu-Ray edition features this colourful diversion:

"You killed my people, a whole fucking damn shitload of them. More than I'm comfortable
with. And for that … well for that, you gotta fucking pay. So, now... I'm gonna
beat the holy fuck fucking fuckety fuck outta one of you.”

That ‘fuckety-fuck’
stuff might, for a lesser character, convey a modicum of brutal comedic wit.
But for Negan, it feels like a reduction in his lyrical arsenal; the swearing,
the apparent absence of calculation, makes him seem less like a psychopathic poet
warrior and more like a brainless hoodlum. I know that some fans will assert that this language is entirely consistent with the
character as he appears in the original comic, but I haven’t read the comics and I’m writing as a fan of the TV show; I think the ‘fuckety fuck’ stuff makes Negan
somehow less scary.

The process of writing involves sketching, drafting, re-drafting and
endless creative tweaking, but the requirement to work within recommended guidelines and a desire to push things to the limit will demand additional creativity from the writer; when those
boundaries are removed, something lesser
invariably happens.

Constraints of taste not only require the writer to be more inventive; I’d suggest that the
actor must also tap into deeper
resources. If you get the chance, compare the two clips and tell me I’m wrong
to suggest that Jeffrey Dean Morgan manages to convey a far greater degree of menace
in his ‘holy hell’ than in that ‘holy fuck fucking fuckety fuck’.

About Me

A few years ago, I promised that I would never start a blog; this is it.
On this blog, I plan to respond to real (or imagined) slights by posting coruscating put-downs of my enemies, competitors and -occasionally- friends. I also plan to maintain the acrimonious simmering of a series of longstanding grudges and petty disputes.
But mainly, the blog will faithfully record a pointless and pedestrian series of idle musings, attempted libels and ill-considered theories about popular culture, sport, politics, music and the meaning of life.
For the last couple of years, I've been writing about an album I'm recording; yes, it's nearly finished.
The views represented on this blog are not necessarily endorsed by the author, unless they are.